Monsters of the Southwest | Eric Lahti Monsters of the Southwest ~ ericlahti ~ Leave a comment Okay, it could be argued that this is really an extension of my post about the Greys since the rumors about Dulce center around rumors about the Greys but it makes for an interesting story in and of itself so bear with me on this one. We’re about to cross through the looking glass folks. UFOs use unleaded. I’m not supposed to tell you that, but there you go. Back in 1979 an Albuquerque man by the name of Paul Bennewitz was a part-time UFO investigator, full time business owner. He and another investigator by the name of Leo Sparkle were doing hypnotic regression on a woman named Myrna Hansen. Since those crafty aliens are so good at hiding their tracks hypnotic regression was, and laregely still is, the number one way to prove alien abduction. Under hypnosis Myrna revealed she had been witnessed cattle mutilations (those still happen around here from time to time) and was taken to a secret underground base.

Bennewitz thought there might a link between Myrna’s story and the strange lights around the Manzano Nuclear Weapons Storage Facility (which, by the way, is nowhere near Dulce). Paul Bennewitz ultimately built a device to decode alien transmissions and those transmissions led him to discover a secret underground base shared by aliens and government agents. That base, he determined, was located near Dulce, NM in the Archuleta Mesa. This was an odd enough situation but got even stranger when a man name Phillip Schneider came forward claiming to have worked as a contractor at the base. During an expansion Schneider and his team accidentally opened a hole to cavern where the Greys had their own secret base. This sparked a conflict between the human and alien operators that nearly devolved into a full-blown war before it was contained. Schneider was later found strangled with a catheter hose. Underground tunnels, referenced in Arise To make things even more interesting, another man named Tomas Costello – who claimed to have been a security guard at the base – claims to have seen horrific experiments carried out by the Greys on unwilling human subjects.

If the rumor mill is to be believed, the Greys were trying to create human/alien hybrids (see this was around long before the X-Files came along). The friction between the aliens and the humans over the treatment of human subjects again sparked a conflict before it was contained. Costello fell off the face of the Earth after telling his tale. So what’s going on in Dulce now? Who knows, but I doubt they’re up to much good. Now, onto how I wove all this into the gripping final sequences of Arise . Again, this takes a bit of time, so make sure you’ve got a full drink handy. At the end of World War II, with the Nazis in full-on retreat mode, the Allied powers recognized there was a huge amount of high-tech Nazi equipment lying around and set out to capture as much of it as possible. The United States, Great Brittain, and the Soviet Union all descended on formerly Nazi controlled areas and sucked up whatever the could find. Among other things, the Allies captured Nazi scientists and kidnapped them (they were Nazis, don’t feel too sorry for them).

Under Operation Paperclip almost 1500 Nazi scientists were extracted to the US to not only expand American technology but deny that information to the Soviets and Great Brittain. The Soviets also captured a huge amount of Nazis to help with their own technological growth spurt. Among other things reported to have been captured was a strange machine known as Die Glocke (the bell), something that could apparently do all sorts of thing that weren’t good. The Bell was a wunderwaffe , something that was intended to single-handedly win the war for Hitler; a thing that might even be able to control a god (that’s my take on it, anyway). Yep, it’s a bell Ostensibly, all the captured scientists were engineers, technicians, and the like, but the Nazis were also experts at biological and chemical warfare and had their own long history of experimenting on unwilling subjects. Again, if you follow the rumor mill, it’s not too hard a leap to make to wonder if some of those guys came back, too. The United States was technically harboring war criminals so adding a few more to the mix wouldn’t have been too big a deal. The Nazis also had a large occult group running around, some of whom would have undoubtedly fallen under US control.

Alien/human hybrids Take all those things and add in the rumors of Dulce and you’ve got a recipe for good action. It’s not much of a leap to think those same Nazis could easily have wound up at Dulce, with or without alien assistance. Now, the Nazis were viscious bastards, but they were smart and tenacious viscious bastards who would have looked at alien/human hybrid experimentation as a perfect chance to continue their work on the master race. Hence the apes in Arise ; strong, easily controlled, not very smart, but paired with a genetically enhanced superman they would make an impressive army for a group that would have grown used to working in the shadows. Over time they would have created something terrible; only the fickle caresses of fate stopped their plans. Of course, there was at least one perfect man left at the end of the story… ~ ericlahti ~ Leave a comment “Grandad always refused to talk about yee naaldlooshii at night. He said the Skinwalkers could hear their names and would come speeding through the brush to take their vengeance. ‘Be wary of yee naaldlooshii,’ he would say.

‘You think you’re tough and safe with your technology, but great Mother Earth will always be stronger than you.’ I always thought he was a tired old fool and his superstitions sickened me. So we gathered at night in the hogan, lit the fire and told the stories. We all had a good laugh until I opened the door and found him staring at us with cold, evil eyes. You could look at him and see both the man and the wolf together.” No, not the Wolfman It actually wasn’t all the uncommon growing up in Farmington to hear people telling stories about Skinwalkers. We were located right next to the Navajo reservation and little bits of information would pass through the porous membrane that separated the two cultures. It wasn’t an every day occurrence by any stretch of the imagination, but as kids we like to talk about monsters; especially when we were safe and sound in the middle of the city. Bright lights have a way of washing away the mysticisms and worries. Get out of town, especially toward or on the reservation, at night and the world was a completely different place. Suddenly that fun time in the boonies got a wee bit scarier and the skinwalker legend looked frightfully real.

I never saw one, but I can see how you could imagine all kinds of things in the dark, flat expanses of Northwestern New Mexico. Places like that at night let you see all kinds of things lurking in the darkness and it’s probably one of the reasons UFO sightings are pretty common in the area. Like most of the monsters I’ve covered so far ( Coco , La Llorona , El Chupacabra , the Greys ), Skinwalkers are very real to the people who live in their hunting grounds and if someone says “Be careful, skinwalkers are out tonight,” it’s quite possible they’re being serious. To understand the Skinwalkers you need to have some understanding of Navajo religion. Mine is shaky at best, but should suffice for our purposes. Yee naaldlooshii, (the Navajo term for Skinwalkers – literally “with it, he goes on all fours”) are powerful magicians who have turned their backs on the Blessing Way and embraced the Witchery Way. The Blessing Way, unless you had any doubts, is the way of generally being good. The Witchery Way is the antithesis of the Blessing Way.

To put it in anglo terms; think of the Jedi and the Sith, although the concepts of the Blessing Way and the Witchery Way predate Star Wars by at least a couple millenia. When the Navajo refer to the Witchery Way as being evil they’re not joking around. The Witchery Way revolves around the use of ’áńt’į or corpse powder and it’s use in curses. Corpse powder is, no kidding, made from corpses and the best corpses to use are from kids, preferably ones you killed yourself. The corpse powder, when used in a rite and directed at a victim causes the victim to waste away to nothing. In order for an initiate to finish the journey to the Witchery Way one must perform some truly heinous feat, such as the murder of a close relative, necrophilia, cannibalism, and so on. Once a person has completed that journey one of the rewards is the ability to transform into an animal. It used to be that in order to transform, a Skinwalker would have to carry around the pelt of the animal they wished to transform into but this doesn’t seem to be a requirement anymore.

In this day and age it’s sufficient to go through the trivial tasks of murdering your brother and turning your back on all that’s fine and good in the world. There are various descriptions of Skinwalkers out there ranging from “that rabbit looked at me funny, it must be a Skinwalker,” to “the beast was huge and vaguely man-shaped and it tore apart the village like it was made of tissue paper.” It’s also said if you lock eyes with a Skinwalker, the Skinwalker will be able to take over your body. They’re supposedly extremely fast, quick to attack and kill, very tough, and impossible to catch. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they’re usually powerful magicians as well. I didn’t make use of the Skinwalkers in either Henchmen or Arise for a couple reasons. The first is Skinwalkers are native to Northwestern New Mexico and they’re not commonly seen in Albuquerque. The other reason is Skinwalkers have been written about by much better authors than myself and I doubt I could add anything to the stories Tony Hillerman has already told. (True story: I met him once at Page One Too back when the place was still open; he was extremely nice.

I hope if I ever get famous I can keep the down-to-Earth feel he had.) They may not have the wide-spread popularity of creatures like Coco (or the Greys), but Skinwalkers are well known and feared in parts of New Mexico. Stats: Size: Varies according to chosen form Speed: Crazy fast Attack: Can vary according to chosen animal; corpse powder; black magic Special Abilities: Can change into an animal, kill you from afar with black magic Armor: Probably none Environment: Navajo reservation, Northwestern New Mexico Alignment: Definitely evil ~ ericlahti ~ 6 Comments “It was just after dusk when we saw them; a half dozen figures hopping across the plains like a bunch of kangaroos straight out of the depth of Hell. They were too far away to make out the details but the fading light glinted off their eyes. The red glowing eyes were unmistakable; chupacabras, probably a hunting party out for blood. They looked like they’d steer clear of our ranch, but we watched them warily. A single goat sucker is bad news, a full hunting party was dangerous to man and goat alike. Looks like they’re headed West, my buddy said. Yeah, straight toward Taylor’s ranch.

Better get on the horn and let him know he’s got a group of Hell’s hoppers coming for him.” -The Ballad of Jake Colton El Chupacabra, the legendary goat sucker, was first reported in Puerto Rico back in 1995. Like every good cryptid, it’s made its way from the goats of the Puerto Rican outback to various locations around the world. Even the Russians have claimed sightings, but they like to one-up the Americans so their credibility is somewhat lacking. The creature is part of popular culture and has been immortalized in such classic films as Cupacabra vs. The Alamo and Chupacabra Terror starring no less than John Rhys-Davies. That’s right, this guy: Chubacabras. Very dangerous. You go first. was in this movie: The Never Back Down of monster movies. So what is the goat sucker? Simply put El Chupacabra is a cryptid from Latin America that is renown for an unquenchable thirst for goat blood. The earliest reports came from farmers finding their goats dead. The forensics report, such as it was, discovered the goats were drained of blood and had three strange puncture marks on their chests.

The goat suckers have since moved through Mexico and into Texas, leaving a spate of drained goat corpses in their wake, like a kind of vampire for goats. Goats are one thing, but what about human attacks? According to most sources chupacabra attacks on humans are rare but not unheard of. Fortunately, WikiHowl has an article on how to survive a chupacabra attack . Bear in mind, these are pretty small creatures. Most reports describe them as no more than three to four feet tall, so an adult human would be tough prey for your average chupacabra. The government, of course, denies the existence of the Chupacabra threat, much like they deny the existence of the Greys . Did someone say GOATS? There are a couple different descriptions of chupacabras out there but more people tend to follow the description of the “classic” goat sucker; three to four feet tale, covered in leathery or scaly skin (no one gets close enough to check). They have a row of spines down their backs and travel by hopping like kangaroos. Other description include a quadruped predator about the size of a small dog and larger, heavier creature the size of a small bear.

Chupacabras may or may not have wings and there are scattered reports of larger “classic” chupacabras that approach the size of adult humans and only eat large goats. Would make a nice pair of boots. Someone call Jack T. Colton Some say El Chupacabra was a naturally occurring cryptid that was squeezed out of its normal lands and discovered a taste for goat blood, others claim the goat suckers were pets of extraterrestrials that somehow got free and spread like a reptilian wild fire. It’s also entirely possible they were pets of other monsters, such as the Tall Man. At any rate, they’re the bane of goat existence and would make a great DLC element for Goat Simulator . Always curb your chupacabra. Chupacabras don’t play a part in either Henchmen or Arise , but I can see a story about some secretive group that captures one, extracts the DNA, mixes it with humans, and creates a warrior race of chupacabras; somewhat similar to the alien/ape hybrids in Arise . As usual, some stats and basic facts. Stats: Size: Three to four feet tall, probably pretty strong to take down a full-grown goat.

Speed: Fast to very fast. Attack: Teeth, claws. Special Abilities: Can drain a goat of sweet, sweet blood in seconds. Armor: Scaly or leathery skin provides some natural defense against goat horns. Environment: Anywhere there are goats. Alignment: Unknown. ~ ericlahti ~ 3 Comments “He awoke with alarm bells ringing in his head and cold dread oozing down his spine. The room felt dark and quiet but the reptile part of his mind was terrified beyond belief. The paralysis of sleep took a Herculean effort to overcome, something adrenaline and terror should have overridden. Finally, after an eternity of struggle, he managed to roll over in bed and collapsed against his pillow from the effort. His tired eyes locked on three small figures next to his bed. In the dark he couldn’t make out their color but they looked like stick figures with big heads and huge, black eyes. One of the figures pointed something at him, a rod or some sort of tube. There was a flash of light and then … nothing. He awoke to the sound of birds chirping and sunlight streaming through the windows of his room.

A splitting headache and blood on his pillow were all that remained of the mysterious visitors.” UFO sightings have happened all over the world. From Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, at some point or another every place on the planet has had a UFO sighting of some sort or another, so how come I feel like I can refer to the Greys as a Southwestern monsters? Well, it’s simple, really. The Southwestern United States can lay claim to a couple of the largest mysteries in the UFO realm. We’ve got Roswell and Area 51 in our court. Of lesser renown but still important in these circles is the infamous Archuleta Mesa in Dulce, NM. England has the crop circles but we’ve got the crashed UFOs and at least a handful of the little dudes safely behind bars in the desert. I’m not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens. By the way, here’s a fun fact about both Henchmen and Arise : the cover designs were inspired by crop circles. See, you learn something every day. Now, for this installment of the fabulously popular Monsters of the Southwest, we’ll be focusing on the occupants of the UFOs, those little guys with huge black eyes and a penchant for playing hide the pellet.

Growing up in New Mexico I spent a lot of my life hearing about aliens and, if you read my author bio on Amazon you’ll find that I talk about roaming around the hills looking for buried treasure and UFOs. I wasn’t joking. That was called weekends when I was growing up. As far as finding things, well, let’s just say I’m not 100% convinced it’s all bull. Which makes this kind of an interesting installment in this series. Coco and La Llorona are both pretty much considered to be just stories; a way of keeping kids in line and warning people about their egos. The Greys are a different story altogether and while you’re unlikely to come across someone who says, “Yes! I have met Coco!” or “La Llorona? She’s right over there, might wanna leave your kids here, though,” there are plenty of people of sound mind and body who will swear on a stack of Bibles (or in my case a stack of Mad Magazines) that the aliens are very real.

Folks from all walks of life, from the rum soaked burnout living in the hills to retired military generals have claimed – publicly, no less – that the Greys are the real deal. Mr. Grey will see you now. I’m not here to debate that. I don’t have any evidence one way or the other to present about the veracity of extraterrestrial life. It’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility. Of course, I guess if you want to get technical; if you assume the Greys are a possibility then it stands to reason that other strange things could be a possibility, too. Then you’re stuck, painted into a corner by your own logic and having to swallow the fact that maybe, just maybe, Coco and La Llorona are either real or based on real events. Since it’s estimated that a full 25% of the Internet(1) is devoted to stories of the Greys, I won’t belabor the point and try to discuss every single theory out there. You can read up on the history of the alien stories anywhere. Rather I’d like to discuss how they relate to the events of Henchmen and Arise .

While these guys don’t actively show up in either story they’re very much in the background of both books and serve, to a certain extent, to generate some plot elements and show an interesting side to Eve. The Greys are referenced a few times throughout the story arc of Henchmen and Arise. In Henchmen , as Eve and Steven are searching for the correct door to open they come across a kind of map describing what projects are being carried out behind each door. The basic breakdown – in government project speak – is like this: The Hole The Sleeper (Spoiler alert: they find out what’s behind door number 3) During the process of figuring it out, our hero Steven (who already has knowledge of the creatures) tries to explain to Eve (who is fascinated with the idea of aliens) how the Greys are of limited use. “What do you think “Angels Above” is?” Eve asks. “Think it could be aliens?” “Possible,” I tell her. “They’re not that exciting, though. Their weapons aren’t all that spectacular and we can’t recreate their power supply, so they’re basically useless to us.” “Wait a minute. There are actually aliens on Earth, and you know about them?

And you never said anything?” she asks. I look at her for a moment. This is the one of a very few times I’ve ever seen Eve excited, and she’s giddy as a schoolgirl. I never pegged her as the type to get excited over aliens. “I’m sorry,” I say. “It honestly never came up, and I don’t think too much about it anymore.” “They’re real?” She asks. “Yeah. Great big eyes and everything. They have a deep and abiding love of black licorice.” “Why are they here?” “They sent out ships in every direction, one of them stumbled across us. Pure accident,” I say. “Do they know anything?” “They know they’re tired of deep space and they like black licorice. Other than that, they’re basically long-haul truckers who’ve found a truck stop and though we’d be an easy conquest.” I look her in the eyes and she looks crushed. “I’m sorry. It’s just how it is. They just kind of do what they do. They’re not all that different than us – same motivations, similar weaknesses. Their technology is more advanced, but that doesn’t mean the average individual is more advanced.

Humans can make some pretty amazing things, but that doesn’t mean your average sofa slob knows a damn thing about making circuit boards.” After all the build-up most people have about aliens, it’s disappointing to find out they’re not magical or wise or uplifting. I was just disappointed I wouldn’t be able to fly their ship. I have to admit I love this little interchange between them. It shows that Eve, who is the supervillain of the story, isn’t all-knowing and still has a sense of wonder even after her 1000+ years of life. I also find it amusing that throughout most of the book she knows far more about what’s going on than Steven and doesn’t bat an eye at having to fight a monster to get where they need to go, but she gets first excited then disappointed when she learns the sad truth about the aliens. They’re used a bit more in Arise , but are still background characters. (spoiler alert!) It was a hybridization process performed at Archuleta Mesa that granted Wilford Saxton his strange ability to come back after being shot and blown up. He was the first successful prototype of an alien/human hybrid.

Hipster alien hybrid: was into cattle mutilation and probing before it was cool. The other thing we learn in Arise is Eve’s interest in the aliens (again, spoiler alert). Bear in mind, she’s pretty old and the centuries have stacked up on her. She’s looking for a way out of life but is stuck with that whole immortal thing that makes it difficult to die. By her reckoning, if she can’t die normally she has two options: either find a way off this rock or find a way to kick off Ragnarök . Eve’s story still hasn’t ended so we’ll just have to see what happens to her in the future. A dream sequence seems to indicate she finds a way to end the world, but dreams without energy are just dreams. In the world of Henchmen and Arise the Greys are considered something of a pathetic, dying race. Their technology is so advanced it can’t effectively be copied. The aliens themselves, while doubtless intelligent, are the specialists of their species and can’t really explain how their technology works and so, therefore, are of limited value outside of the biology. They’re hardly the central part of the story as either protagonist or antagonist.

The mythology surround the Greys already pretty well established and I simply had trouble finding a way to expand on that other than looking at a quiet takeover and that would have changed the tone of the story significantly. The reason for this is simple: the story of the aliens has been told by better authors than myself and told better than I could possibly do so anything I came up with would simply be derivative of other works. The same can be said of UFOs and abductions. I wanted to include the Greys in some way or another. I am from New Mexico, after all. In fact when I was first thinking about the end-game of Henchmen the first idea I came up with was the protagonist (Steven didn’t have a name at that point) breaking into a base and breaking an alien out. The joke was on him, though. They weren’t friendly or easy to deal with. He runs into a small collective of the beings and their psychic presence nearly wipes him out. It was only the leader’s (Eve didn’t have a name at that point, either) constant reminder over the radio to keep his mind about him. He winds up shooting one of them and the rest scatter.

That scene never made it from my head onto – well, not paper, but you know what I mean. I never wrote it even though I could see it in my head. In the long run, the idea of a captured god was much more interesting, even if it’s not really all that different in the final analysis. So, are the Greys real? I can’t say for certain, but I’m not willing to dismiss their story entirely as the ramblings of drunken lunatics or broken minds. Why anyone would cover the vast distances of empty space to mutilate cattle and probe humans is beyond me, but they are called aliens for a reason. Humans have trouble understanding people from the other side of the planet, there’s no reason to expect we should be able to grok people from another world. All I know is this: Be happy the Greys are these guys See, the moon landing wasn’t faked. and not these guys This is his happy face. As usual, some stats and basic facts. Stats: Size: Mostly described as between a couple to four feet or so. Not terribly physically strong. Speed: They’re not reported to be very physically strong or fast, but they’re not slow, either.

Some reports describe them as moving like kids in short, sharp bursts of speed. Attack: Technologically advanced but you don’t hear much about their weaponry. Many reports describe the ability to basically “shut down” and take over victims. Whether this is because of fear, psychic power, or something else is unknown. Special Abilities: Interstellar flight, tractor beams, ships seem to be able to show up on radar but human weapons appear to be ineffective. Armor: Nothing specifically described, but missiles never hit them. Environment: Most stories involving encounters take place far from large populations although they don’t seem to be averse to buzzing large population centers. See the Phoenix UFOs and the vast amount of stories involving cars breaking down in the middle of nowhere. It’s safe to assume they can be anywhere and everywhere. Alignment: Unknown. /tg/ - Traditional Games » Thread #44558819 /tg/ - Traditional Games Does the USA have any interesting folklore of its own? The best I can think of are tall tales and conspiracy theories. Anonymous >>44558819 there's the mythology of every native american society in north america.

and there's some "interesting" stuff appalachians are into, especially wrt folk medicine and some co-opted english traditions that aren't practiced anymore, like sin eaters. There's New Orleans Vodoun, which is distinct from the more general form. Urban legends form a sort of contemporary folklore, and regions all over the country develop a small body of myth. Americans are especially into cryptids, like jackalopes and bigfeet/skunk apes. IDK man America's huge, there's stories all over. Anonymous Quoted By: >>44559227 >>44565424 The USA has folklore, but it's such a young nation that it's mostly all pretty shitty. They've just got a real lack of history compared to other, 'adult' nations. Anonymous Does Indian stuff count? Because there's plenty of cool stuff there. Anonymous View Same Google iqdb SauceNAO Haunted Places in the USA.pdf, 5MiB, 1x1 Post A retarded question that deserves retarded answers and this thread will descend into /int/-tier assholery, but this book has a lot of interesting stuff. Anonymous Lovecraft counts as USA folklore I say.

Or at least his stories often include USA folklore. Native american shit counts as well. Ghosts also have a strong prevalence in American myth Anonymous I read some old newspaper articles from the late 1990s about transient and homeless children inventing their own mythologies (though it's a bit iffy on how really true it is). Anonymous >>44558819 We have a shitton of ghost stories here in the South. Lots of haunted plantations. A lot of old black storytelling involves the supernatural. As you point out, most American folklore is modern and takes the form of urban legends and conspiracy theories. Other than that, there are skinwalkers, wendigo, sasquatch... I remember coming across some Hopi shit that was pretty wild, but I don't remember it well. Lots of good native folklore to be sure. Anonymous American horror and folklore tends to rise from expansion era myth. Also, anyone who ignores the Wendigo and Bigfoot as legitimate folklore are fooling themselves. See also, Jersey Devil, Goat Man, Moth Man, Voodoo in Louisiana, etc. Anonymous >>44558973 Yes, that's a huge portion.

You also get some from the cities, but it carries a mostly European flavor, as most European horror and folklore didnt make it to the frontier. Strictly American flavored horror and folklore can usually be found in the less populated regions and smaller populations of the old frontier. Anonymous Quoted By: >>44559022 >>44559038 >>44559760 >>44564741 Bermuda Triangle is American Folklore, for sure. There's also Area 51, possibly? It doesn't count really as folklore yet but Ohio's gravitational pull and tendancy to inflict depression should be noted. Anonymous View Same Google iqdb SauceNAO i must ayy.jpg, 63KiB, 569x427 Post Being boring is not supernatural, anon. Anonymous George Washington (given the myths he's attached to) The Headless Horseman Quoted By: >>44561012 >>44561460 No, the USA does not have any interesting folklore of its own.

Not in the time it's been around and the history it's had, the size and climates it holds, or the vast multicultural populace, have any of these things led to even a single piece of interesting folklore. Anonymous >not having a fetish for Ohio casual. Oh yeah those are great real quality folklore there you fucking immigrant retard child burger-eating flag-waving son of fucking Irish-German bitch. Anonymous Fuck you, unAmerican double nigger. Go choke on the barrel of your shotgu- OH WAIT. Anonymous See also cryptids. Some of those are pretty fun, event the dumb lumberjack ones. Sorry I'm not more help. I'm afraid I'm going to bed. Anonymous Bullshit, the Dover Demon is VERY obviously a Grey. Anonymous That's another good example. A lot of alien and UFO mythology is American in origin. Anonymous never forget the great lakes Pepe Rarest of Pepes I can't you over the sound of my freedom Anonymous >The best I can think of are tall tales and conspiracy theories. But that's what folklore is all about. Anonymous Off the top of my head... Native American stuff was already cited. Loads there, even if I'm not familiar with all of it. Tons of cryptids.

Sasquatch, El Chupacabra, Jersey Devil, etc. All the most well known Alien tropes are American in origin. Flying saucers, crop circles, abductions, cattle mutilations. Hell the whole concept of invaders from Mars is american in origin. This includes other Alien variations like shapeshifters (The Thing) and animal monstrosities (Alien). Zombies, in terms of animated dead as servants, came from Louisiana voodoo practitioners. The modern concept of a horde of indomitable undead cannibals is also uniquely American. A lot of Pirate folklore comes from the Carribean sea, which might count as America. El Dorado, the Lost City of Gold definitely counts. I also like to think that Americans also invented the idea of top-secret government agents arriving in black helicopters and vans to abduct people or create a coverup. I'd consider that mythology. H. P. Lovecraft and his works on the Cthulhu mythos are also 100% American. Most of his stories take place in or around Massechusettes.

If you want to stretch the definition of Mythology, America is also responsible for the concept of artificial intelligences, whether friendly or hostile, all well as inventing the modern concept of Robots Anonymous >>44559316 >You get some of that in American folklore, too, with Sleepy Hollow and Paul Bunyan and stuff, but for the most part a lot of American legends are fueled by the fact that you were a day's travel from places no one had ever seen (aside from Indians, but they don't count). Less "maybe that guy talked to Satan" and more "maybe there's a monster living in those woods" because, again, you don't have generations of people living in those woods to suggest otherwise. Even the natives are wary of strange wild places, or were when there were enough of them to be wary. The U.S. is still mostly wild territory today. In places like Alaska, nature is still god, and she's a cold and cruel god. Anonymous >>44559514 And there are no more Celts left in England, yet they still claim King Arthur as their national myth.

There aren't any Frenchmen left either, yet they still have a statue of King Richard "Two Dialects of French but no Saxon" "I'd sell London if I could find a buyer" the Lionheart next to Buckingham Palace, and that statue was only put there in 1860. History of a country or region has very little to do with what ethnic groups live there right now. Otherwise modern day London should no longer consider English history their own, considering it's now minority white British. But I guess that doesn't count because they're not brown. Anonymous Just about everything related to the West, be it cowboys and outlaws, gold rushes, indian wars, the Oregon Trail, or cattle drives and bank robbers. America is an expansionist nation made up of explorers and settlers. Just because your only experience with figures like Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, and Davy Crockett has been through 1950's television, doesn't mean they aren't significant portions of our culture. Also, another reminder that not all of those "tall tales" are fiction. People like Jim Bowie, Davey Crockett, and Buffalo Bill were very much real people, who lived extraordinary lives.

Beyond that, pick up any book about ghosts/haunted locations near you and start reading. Anonymous >>44558819 There was a fascinating article I read some time ago that speculated that D&D as a fantasy concept is distinctly American, and is strongly influenced by how Americans perceive space, distance, and nations, and how the idea of there being this permanent wilderness with unknown things in it and forgotten cities just laying around only really makes sense when you live in a country that large with that much empty space. Canada and the USA are gargantuan countries, and most of them is just empty. Russia is also like that, but Russia is more tied up in its history. Also, they don't have to pretend that their country is a massive wilderness full of monsters, because it actually is. Anonymous >>44564465 I've been looking for something on shinyeyes since making that post and haven't been able to find anything online for some reason. Anyway, it's a story I heard a few times as a kid. He's about ten feet long and sort of cat-like, with silver-white skin and big bright eyes that shine and cast light like lanterns.

He shows up in or around coalmines just before they collapse. There were supposed to be two or three incidents that happened around the same time that he was seen at, but I can't remember what they were or if they were even actually named in the story. The second time when he showed up outside of the mine one man shot as him and the bullets didn't do a thing, as though they went right through him. Anonymous >>44558819 Do you consider only old stories to be folklore? Because from an antropogical point of view, the ufology subculture is quite a folklore, and more proeminent in America than anywhere else. From a certain perspective, it seems to replace what other folklores would blame on fairies. As our understanding of what's natural expanded to all corners of the globe, the "supernatural entities" went off-planet, inside it, or other dimensions. Abductions, being taken to weird and distant places*, alien hybrids instead of changelings, feats and intentions beyond our comprehension. *to our ancestors, dark florests and distant lands. To people who populated such lands and went to the moon nowadays, outer space.

It even has the inventiness and changes folklore like fairy tales had before being printed and standardized. Anonymous >>44570029 You do know that giving Elephants as gifts is actually somewhat of a snub in Siam? The King of Siam (which one escapes me at the moment) used to give out white elephants to those he disliked, because it was illegal to kill them, and caring for the elephant would financially ruin the recipient. While war elephants aren't white elephants, the fact remains. Also, what would we even have done with them? Not only would they have little to no use in the US military either in regular or irregular units, but the only places with a conducive climate for keeping them is in the American Southeast/Texas, as the Southwest was extremely sparsely populated, and Lincoln wasn't going to give away more potential advantages to the tumultuous South.

I say all of this as a guy who really fucking loves elephants and the use of them in battle, they're just so goddamn cool Anonymous Quoted By: >>44576934 >>44576953 >>44577237 >>44577525 >>44577705 Texas here and we've got the el cupacabra (goat sucker), La Llarona (the crying lady) who waits by the water to drown kids, El Cucuy( mexican boogeyman, Lechuza( witches who turn into owls and turn kids out after dark into blind mice so they can eat them). These are tejano in origin but I still heard them as a white kid. In school the library always had books about Native American Folklore too. These stories are extreme important to kids in Texas. One could also take hunting stories and exaggerate them. Like black cougars, two headed rattlesnakes, snapping turtles older than the constitution. Lost of people in my city think the river and the springs that feed it are The Fountain of Youth from Ponce De Leon's writings.

Pecos Bill supposed broke a tornado and rode it like a bronco. The store I work at Sells Jackelope head mounts. The culture an folklore is there. You just gotta look. Theres even rituals and shit you're supposed to do at certain events. I've got a friend that when we go hiking and come to a cross roads he always walks this weird zig zag to confuse the demons that live there. Supposedly if you go to crossroads and bury a jar with your dreams written on a piece of paper there you can summon a demon. The old african slaves told stories of Aunt Nancy. Anonymous Quoted By: >>44577245 In the southern areas, there is a lot more folklore. Also, I forgot the name of this one, but there's a legend about a giant lumberjack who's favorite ox died, (if I remember correctly) and he got so depressed that he dragged his ax southward, and that was how the grand canyon was formed. Not sure how popular this legend was, but I remember having it told to me when I was a kid.

(I grew up and still live in eastern Texas freshwater bayou area by the way) Another was about how the Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog/Cur came into existence, and I've heard this is somewhat historically accurate (by one theory). When the Spanish conquistadors came to Louisiana to take over some of the indigenous tribes, but they weren't prepared for the bayou terrain and got their asses kicked so fast that they left their dogs behind. The native tribes bred the Spanish Greyhounds and Mastiffs with their domestic red wolves, and that mix created the Catahoula dogs, roughly named after the indigenous tribe in the bayou. Those dogs are damn good swimmers and runners too, I have one and she is he most athletic dog I've ever seen. Without her, my other dog would have probably been eaten by a coyote by now. XD Anonymous Quoted By: >>44577899 >>44577940 One time a British sniper caught him unarmed, at close range, with only one guard. Washington just turned and went the other way, and the sniper couldn't bring himself to shoot a man who could so calmly face death.

It's said that an Indian leader who led the attack that saw only Washington uninjured had said that Washington "is the particular favorite of Heaven, and who can never die in battle." He once wrote to his brother of one of his battles saying "I heard the bullets whistle and, believe me, there is something charming to the sound of bullets." Some say he spent $200 on ice cream in one summer. At a time when 10$ could by you the horse equivalent of a lamborghini. Not really relevant but interesting. Anonymous >>44577677 >Is your aversion to magic based on christianity or something more uniquely american? The 13 colonies were mostly made up of religious reformers like puritans or separatists like the pilgrims. Both were pretty hardcore 'magic is evil, read your bible' type deals. Then there were two 'Great Awakenings':movements which spurred a lot more interest in religion in the general populace, with both movements being led by evangelicals who considered magic devil work. >I thought "mad scientists" are more of a european thing.

Mad Scientists became popular with pulp fiction novels and comic books in the mid-20th century, mostly because of the rapid advance in technology during the time (nukes and stuff). Anonymous >>44577677 America's strongly negative view of the supernatural (outside of Christ of course) is yes in big part due to religious doctrine, but it's worth noting that America, being founded by immigrants, doesn't really have its own home-grown magic; everything was brought over from the old country or the work of heathen redskins and black slaves. We didn't have our own stories of good American wizards or wonder-workers like Europeans did/do, so it was strictly the work of Satan. And actually America's witch hunts weren't super bad. Yes they did happen, but it wasn't the WH40K Inquisition most people seem to think it was. Native Americans had their own practitioners and traditions so they weren't strictly anti-supernatural. A few prominent tribes had most magic fall under the trickster deity's portfolio, so it wasn't something to be taken lightly or used haphazardly, but few traditions are different in that regard.

America's mad scientists often get stuck with German or Swiss surnames and accents, but they populate a good deal of fictitious works, at least more so than witches and fairies. The Civil War was huge and the impacts of it can still be felt today. I'd guess any civil war would have that effect, though; fighting your own people on your own land tends to do things to a national identity. Anonymous >>44578064 The Presidents have always been a big part of the American psyche. America is a nation without royalty. We need some face to slap our collective consciousness onto and Uncle Sam doesn't always do it, so the Presidents become more than just heads of state--they become symbols of the times during which they were in office. Presidents, once out of office (and usually dead), become cultural touchstones. In America, you hear phrases like "The Reagan era." You get stories--legends, really--of the exploits of our leaders. Like the ones of Washington posted in this thread. Presidents exist at times as personifications of problems plaguing the nation, or as culture-heroes. Hell, we made fucking pic related. That takes a certain kind of mindset.

Anonymous Quoted By: >>44578384 >>44578433 >>44578459 >>44578520 A thing non-Americans go in not truly grasping is the RECENCY of the American Civil War. I'm Canadian and never really gave it much thought, just one of those old wars past a century ago, right? Well a good deal of literature the country is raised on (literally, it's required reading sometimes in schools) is like a generation or two removed from the civil war. The brutality of it, the newness of the technology creating scenes of carnage in gross excess, the losing side not really being occupied but left to stew on nothing but their own impressions, and the disorganization as well as geographical scale combined with still newly settled areas gave some parts of the war really odd folklore bording on 'lost in the woods' weirdness, tinged with adventurousness. Anonymous No. 44578358 Report Quoted By: Freedomland is home to everything from jungles, to deserts, to temperate forests, to wide open plains, to to freezing tundra.

For much of written history it was basically isolated centers of civilization (more commonly just towns and homesteads) surrounded by vast tracts of wilderness to explore. The wilderness while beautiful was home to countless dangers. Hostile tribes, the elements, and vicious beasts. For the natives it was basically Mad Max. I feel this is why we like post apocalyptic settings and "dark ages" so much. It helped bring out values of individualism, optimism, self reliance, and violence as a harsh but clearly necessary means of solving problems. Culturally I think there's a few distinct "realms" like the Midwest, Dixie, the Southwest, New England, etc. Damn it, I wish we weren't near bump limit so we worldbuild. Anonymous >>44578336 >Civil War, and some yankees still love to jerk themselves off to how they sure showed those ignorant redneck savages who is really in charge and who really runs America, then tell themselves they did it all for black civil rights. Yep, that's why I love being a texan.

We can simultaneously do all the "south shall ris again" and southern pride stuff like the deep south, but because we did so little in the war, or more accurately so little of it affected us we often times pretend we had barely anything to do with it. Best of both worlds. Anonymous >Multiple major, wealthy metropolitan areas >Dozens of high-quality schools for all subjects >Housing is generally cheap as shit >Food is dirt cheap, plentiful, and varied (The other day at HEB corn was 8 cents an ear. EIGHT CENTS).

>Right next to Mexico (which is a double-edged sword I'll admit, but Mexico is pretty fun to visit as long as you're not dumb) >Some surprisingly not-shitty beaches (though Galveston is still a shithole, you've been warned) >Massive pine forests, massive tracts of farmland, massive scrubland, 6,000 mountains over 1,000 feet high >Gas is cheap as all fuck >Potable water is dirt cheap, and water features literally riddle most of the state though I'll admit it's slow and usually brown, damn all this clay >We kicked the ass of the 2nd most powerful nation in the Western Hemisphere at the time (with help from Tennessee) >Strong cultural and legal emphasis on personal freedom >We're not poverty-riddled like Oklahoma or New Mexico >Individual cultures and subcultures that are distinctly different from other parts of the US >Individual identity as a state We have our problems, but we're sure as hell not a C or D. That's just you being a filthy fucking Yankee or West Coaster. Anonymous >>44578717 Is you ded?

What were there, something like 17 touchdowns, some of them being even F4's? I have family in Rockwall (H-town represent nigga) and I heard that one touched down near there. We had a major front blow through here a few months ago that caused like six night touchdowns in South Houston/Ass-adena area. You know, with all of these tornadoes hitting us like the fucking plague, did we piss off God or something? Is somebody still secretly keeping Jews as slaves? Is somebody not going on that mission trip God is telling them to go on? Did somebody actually masturbate or something? Because if so, dude, getting it together, this needs to stop, people are dying, goddamn Anonymous >>44577677 >Is your aversion to magic based on christianity Yes, but it's specifically American Christianity, where the devil is lord of the unknown and the primal/uncivilized, including hidden mysteries of magic and the wilderness, which is also why American depictions of magic often have it very sexual and/or bloody. At least in the north. The south is actually kind of opposite, with the devil popping up in a nice suit and giving people contracts and deals.

Modern depictions fuse the two. >I heard you guys had crazy witch hunts all over the place. Well, they weren't that widespread but they occurred in our second ever successful colony, which is also the one that yankees treat as the first since the real first was slaveholders and corporate interests together with a bunch of criminals. >mad scientist Like Edison and Tesla. The more modern idea of the mad scientist kind of resurged because of European nazi scientists, but the shit they actually do in media is all based on those two. >Was "the Civil War" your equivalent to the Trojan War, the Kurukshetra war, or the Cattle Raid of Cooley on a cultural level? Trojan War is more like the Revolution. The war when America was forged out of it's raw ingredients by great political philosophers and businessmen, as well as the sweat of honest workers. The Civil War is more of an ideological divide given the blood and bones of hatred. Which one is more mythologized depends on where you stand, the north prefers the former and the south, the latter. The West doesn't have an equivalent war, really.

>I feel like the late 19th century is your "once upon a time" land of yore. More or less, but other eras get tied in too. The myths that kids learn in school are mostly from the foundation of the union. Anonymous We, The goat and Goats on Pinterest Forward Chupacabra- mexican cryptid: (alien) an alien that was left behind or a mutant created by aliens. (monster) a paranormal creature that sucks the blood out of its victims such as goats and chickens Its actuality: a mangy coyote and other mangy dogs. The three puncture wounds on its "victims" were it supposedly sucked the blood was simply a person who wanted attention and drained the blood. Take in account that no one had found a wild animal with these signature puncture wounds See More

Question: A popular cryptid in Latin American communities, the beast known as the Cupacabra makes its livelihood sucking the blood of what animals?
Answer: Goats